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An Electrifying Tale of Lightning

Lightning is a naturally occurring phenomenon. Scientists today are still not completely sure on how lightning is created, but there are many popular theories. What is known, however, is that clouds are positively charged on the top and negatively charged on the bottom. Also, the electric field from the clouds cause everything on the ground to have a positive charge, things like trees, your house, and you. All of this leads up to the amazing arcs of light that travel down, most of the time.

During a lightning strike a great amount of energy is released in a fraction of a second. this energy is so powerful it vibrates air enough to be able to hear thunder from miles away. A lightning strike is caused by an electrostatic build up and then a great release of energy. Air would usually be a good insulator, causing the lighting not to happen, but because of the electromagnetic field around the cloud the air is ionized and turned into a conductor.

During a lightning storm, you see lightning in a fraction of a second. Most people think that lightning goes downwards, but this is not always true. because electricity can travel in any direct, sometimes lighting can even go from the ground to the cloud, or meet in the middle. We never see this however, because this all happens too quickly for the brain to process. This is also caused because electrons can exists everywhere according to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. This is hard to imagine but has been documented in magnificent pictures and videos.

Lightning can create amazing things because of its super hot temperatures and great amount of energy. Many people have been able to make crazy glass structures by using metal rods in sand. Once the lighting hits the metal rod and travels to the earth the sand gets super heated and turned into glass. This creates marvelous glass sculptures which have weird but astonishing shapes that can be dug up from under the sand.

As you can see lightning is an amazing product of nature, that is beautiful and dangerous at the same time. Lightning has great energy and travels in every which way. Glass sculptures created from super heated sand are the product of lightning and its mysterious abilities. Lightning has amazing capabilities, but still has some mysteries behind it, even with modern scientist devoting their lives to researching it.